San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
‘We beat ourselves’
Turnovers put ’Runners in hole before late rally falls short
DALLAS — Sizing up UTSA’s First Responder Bowl matchup last week, coach Jeff Traylor rattled off a list of similarities between his program and No. 19 Louisiana-Lafayette before pausing to measure his words.
Both teams pride themselves on running the football, playing physical defense, and staying sharp on special teams. But while the belief systems are similar, Traylor admitted the Ragin’ Cajuns “have done a lot more than we have.”
Traylor also posed a question: Can the Roadrunners in one year catch up to what coach Billy Napier has been building with the Ragin’ Cajuns for the past three?
On Saturday, the answer proved to be no, but just barely. UTSA rallied from a 17-point deficit to pull into a tie early in the fourth quarter before falling 31-24 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas.
The second bowl appearance in program historywas a reminder of howfar the Roadrunners have come, but also how far they still have to go.
“This was a great litmus test,” said
Barry Lunney Jr., UTSA's acting head coach with Traylor unavailable after testing positive for COVID“I know that's where coach Traylor's vision is to go with this program. We went toe-to-toe with some really good teams this year. We didn't win the games, and we have to learn how to win those games.”
As the Roadrunners led a third-quarter charge, Lunney said “everyone in the stadium sensed the tide had turned,” with energy surging through the UTSA sideline.
The Roadrunners were trailing by 17 when De'Marco Guidry forced a fumble that UTSA's Trevor Harmanson recovered. Four plays later, quarterback Frank Harris connected with Zakhari Franklin for a 29-yard touchdown to pull the Roadrunners within 10.
After UTSA forced a punt, Harris connected with Franklin for 52 yards down the left sideline and followed with a 10-yard scoring pass to Joshua Cephus, narrowing the margin to 24-21.
After a Louisiana threeand-out, UTSA drove 82 yards but settled for a game-tying 20-yard field goal by Hunter Duplessis early in the fourth quarter.
“We just figured we'd ride the momentum out as long as we could,” safety Rashad Wisdom said. “The momentum definitely had us feeling like it was our game to lose.”
Louisiana took back the lead on the ensuing drive, covering 72 yards in 12 plays to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Trey Ragas
with about 7 minutes remaining.
UTSA's next possession ended with a turnover on downs at the Louisiana 35yard line after back-to-back incompletions fromHarris, and the Ragin' Cajuns ran out the final 4:37.
Harris described the feeling in the locker room after the game as “sad” and “disappointed,” and he focused on his opening-drive interception and thirdquarter fumble.
On the second play from scrimmage of the second half, Harris struggled to field a lowsnap and tried to rush a shovel pass to his left. The ball bounced on the field andwas recovered by Louisiana, which punched in a 3-yard touchdownrun by Elijah Mitchell on the next play to lead 24-7.
“We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Harris said. “We beat ourselves a lot of times.… We just can't do that.”
Harris completed 13 of 21 passes for 208 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, with Franklin hauling in five catches for 115 yards and a score. Harris also ran 18 times for 91 yards and a touchdown, while running back Sincere McCormick carried 23 times for 122 yards to become the program's alltime leading rusher with 2,450 yards.
Louisiana churned out 265 yards on the ground, averaging 5.8 yards per carry.
Wisdom said the biggest factors in the Roadrunners' defensive struggles were “just tackling, wrapping up — fundamental stuff.”
UTSAwas playing for the first time since Nov. 28, and Lunney said the group showed typical signs of rust.
“The two highest priorities you're concerned about are turnovers and ball handling on offense, and tackling on defense,” Lunney said. “Those two things really affected the outcome of the game.”
Besides Traylor's absence, Lunney said the Roadrunners were without 15 to 20 players and stafferes, many because of COVID-19 protocols. Secondleading tackler Jamal Ligon and No. 2 running back Brenden Brady were among the players who did not appear Saturday.
“I told them that we were proud of them, and I know coach Traylor would've been proud of them,” Lunney said. “We played tremendously hard against a really good opponent, in a difficult situation with not having your head coach, among others. And so I think for that, we have
a lot to be proud about.”
Playing on national network television for the first time in program history with a broadcast on ABC, UTSA failed to notch the program's first postseason win or to knock off a ranked opponent for the first time in seven tries.
Wisdom said the Roadrunners felt they let Saturday's game slip away, but he added that the program learned through the year that sticking to Traylor's culture is enough to “really play with whoever we go out on the field with.” The Roadrunners also lost by one score to UAB and BYU.
“The next step for us is just being able to pull out these close games, and not being OK with just hanging in the game with them and coming up short,” Wisdom said.
After going 3-9 in 2018 and 4-8 in 2019, UTSA finished Traylor's first season 7-5, recording seven victories for the first time since 2013.
Standing toe-to-toe with 10-1 Louisiana, one of the top teams in the Group of Five this season, gave the Roadrunners a glimpse of the steps they hope to take next.
“We'll be using that as motivation in the offseason and next year,” Lunney said. “We want to get to where Louisiana is, and some of those other programs to be nationally ranked, to be looked at as one of those Group of Five programs. They've earned their way there. And so we've seen how close we are. We've seen that it's a realistic goal for us to get to that point.”